Powerhouse flatbed scanner

Canon’s new $799 CanoScan 9900F is a powerhouse flatbed scanner that captures crisp, colourful images from film or prints — and can automatically clean up old, damaged photos.

In addition to solid 48-bit colour depth and high 3200dpi resolution, the 9900F has an improved version of Canon’s built-in photo restoration feature, dubbed Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement (FARE). This impressive technology — part hardware and part software — includes options for correcting fading and graininess, as well as for removing dust and scratches.

Although using the FARE tools does slightly increase the length of time the 9900F takes to complete a job, the scanner still operates at a relatively brisk pace through its USB 2.0 interface (the unit also has a FireWire port). For example, with FARE, the 9900F took approximately 3 minutes to produce a 10MB, 1600dpi scan of a 35mm negative — still far less time than it would take me to make such corrections manually using the bundled image editor.

The screen was particularly good. It is bright and visible from most angles, however heat is an issue, particularly around the Windows button on the front, and on the back where the battery housing is located.

My first impression after unboxing the Q702 is that it is a nice looking unit. Styling is somewhat minimalist but very effective. The tablet part, once detached, has a nice weight, and no buttons or switches are located in awkward or intrusive positions.

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